Bum's Luck (2012)

B U M’ S L U C K

Screen Story Synopsis ByFrank Q. Dobbs & Caleb Pirtle, III

Cletus “Clete” Craig is mid-30’s and a former bull riding champion and all aroundcowboy who has had too many broken bones and bruises to keep on riding. He now hasbecome the King of the Rodeo Clowns…keeping other riders from bodily harm andproviding some of the best of the broad “rodeo arena” humor that is the lesser but stillimportant task of the men with baggy pants and painted faces. Of course he has help withthe latter…his flop eared mule, Hobo, and his shaggy and spotted (but mainly white) muttknown throughout the world of rodeo as “Rodeo Bum”. Clete, Hobo and Bum are starattractions.But in a matinee performance bull riding competition things go terribly wrong. Cleterisks life and limb to cut free a bull rider who’s hung up in the belly strap and is, himself,seriously injured…saved from near certain death only by Bum’s fierce attack on themurderous bull.In the race to get Clete into the ambulance and off to the hospital nobody gives even amoment’s thought to the heroic little white mutt on the sidelines. Frantically, Bum setsout after the fast disappearing ambulance…following the fading sound of the siren. Thenthere’s a screech of brakes, a honking of horns and Bum is sent flying into a ditch when aswerving automobile clips his hindquarters.And that’s where the exhausted and battered little dog is lying when Charlie Dietrich,eleven years old, going on fifty, happens along. Charlie instinctively reaches out to theinjured dog…and Bum is too exhausted to put up much resistance. But Charlie, in spiteof his compulsion to help, has a big problem. He’s a foster child, passed from pillar topost with no more personal possessions than he can carry in his tattered backpack.When Clete Craig awakens in the hospital and discovers his loyal companion is missing,a reward fund is quickly rounded up. TV news clips are broadcast. Posters are spreadaround. Suddenly half the city, including Charlie’s current foster father, a security guard,is on the lookout for the dog…and the reward.But Charlie Dietrich is both resourceful and determined. He’s not about to turn in theonly thing he’s ever loved…the only thing he’s ever owned. He and the little white doggo on the lam, eluding capture and eventually hopping a fast freight. Here, again, Bum’sinstinct to protect is called upon.Now Charlie Dietrich must make the first “adult” decision of his young life. Bum has ahome. Bum has a family. Can Charlie deny the little pooch the one thing he has alwaysached to have for himself?